Understanding
by erindolphin91
Summary: There were quite a few things that Yusei's friends never understood about him. But mostly, they never understood how he never seemed to get lost.


_Hi folks! This is something that's been floating around my brain and then computer for quite some time, but with exams coming up this will probably be my last post for a little while. Hopefully I've got everyone roughly in character._

_Please read and review, even if you don't like it!_

_Disclaimer: do not own, sadly._

Kiryu never understood how Yusei, who was a foot and a half shorter and a year younger, could always best him in a fist fight. Or just about anybody else, for that matter, except maybe Jack. Whether it was friendly tumbling, or genuine life or death situations, Yusei didn't lose when it came down to fists. Yusei didn't even look like a fighter from a distance, but looking into those icy blue eyes made most people reconsider challenging him. Kiryu couldn't forget the time a group of adults, who weren't interested in playing fair, had cornered them in an alleyway. Despite being 13 at the time, Yusei had challenged them to a fight. He had ended up with a broken arm and concussion, but he had won. Very few people bothered them after that.

Crow never understood how Yusei could sit so quietly and still and just listen to you that you'd forget he was there. Crow talked all the time, holding Kiryu and Jack's attention like nobody else could. And it would only be after Yusei had made some offhand comment from over whatever piece of technology he was working on this time that he'd remember that there were actually four people in the room, not three.

Jack never understood how Yusei always had time for his friends. No matter what the problem, whatever the time, whether it was finding a bandage to patch Crow up after one of his scraps, or mending something, or sorting out an argument, Yusei had the time. Didn't he ever just want to be alone, without the constant interruptions? But if he did, Yusei never mentioned it in front of his friends.

Martha never understood Yusei's affinity for technology. She couldn't comprehend how he was able, just by looking at the arrangement of a machine, to understand it – and then could promptly set about recreating and sometimes bettering it. She was grateful, though, when the rest of Satellite was under a blackout and they weren't because the temporary generator Yusei had built one time as an experiment when he was 11 still worked.

Aki never understood what kept making Yusei come back, even after all the times she'd hurt him. At first, she'd wanted to scream at him, tell him to stay away, because she was a _monster_ who'd couldn't… didn't care about anybody else, except Divine. But despite everything, he kept returning. A long time later, after everything settled down, Aki would creep into whichever room he was sleeping in and just watch him. The way his hair remained permanently stuck up, no matter what he did with it. How he always slept on his back, and even whilst he was asleep, he still seemed radiate a calmness that made her feel safe, if only for a little while. Once, just once, she plucked up the courage to reach out and trace the almost invisible scar on his left cheek, a memento of the worst duel she'd ever been through.

After she slipped away, Yusei would open one of his deep blue eyes and smile to himself, glad that she had been happy, for a little while. It was all he ever wanted for her.

* * *

And none of them ever understood how Yusei never seemed to get lost. Crow reckoned once that it had something to do with his uncannily accurate memory, but even that couldn't explain all of it. They first noticed it when he was 12, and the four of them had ended up in the wrong area of Satellite. When Kiryu finally admitted to the others that he had no idea where they were, Yusei turned his dark eyes on him and then started walking. He ignored Jack telling him to stop being an idiot, and eventually they all followed him as he headed through the alleyways. When they ended up at their hideout, less than half an hour later, Yusei crawled under his blankets and fell asleep, leaving Kiryu, Jack and Crow wondering just how he'd managed to do it.

They tested it once, when he was 13. Left him on the other side of Satellite, intending to head over to Martha's and when he got there, pretend that they had been looking for him for ages.

In the end, they were the ones who got lost, and Yusei left Martha's to find them. They never pulled a stunt like that again.

Martha noticed it after Yusei turned up out of the blue when she hadn't seen him for months, asking if Jack, Crow and Kiryu had arrived yet. He spent the rest of the evening fixing things and playing with the other children. When they still hadn't turned up the next morning, Yusei vanished, returning a couple of hours later with Jack, Crow and Kiryu trailing sheepishly behind him.

Aki noticed it when they crossed paths in the corridors of the Duelling Stadium. It wasn't until a while afterwards that she realised that the look in his eyes when he saw her wasn't one of surprise. It was one of expectance. Yusei knew she was going to be there, because, as strange as it sounded, he had been looking for her. She mentioned it briefly in passing to Jack. When he heard, he burst out laughing. When she got mad at him and demanded to know what was so funny, he sobered up and told her that Yusei didn't get lost, so if they ran into each other it was most likely because he had wanted to run into her. And that just made Aki more confused than ever.

* * *

So when Kiryu was running through the streets, after he'd killed that Security Officer, avoiding both patrols and his comrades, he knew, deep down in his heart, that it was futile. So when he heard footsteps behind him, he knew who it was, even before his name was called, even before he was knocked to the ground with all the strength his pursuer could muster. Knowing who it was didn't make it hurt any less.

So when Crow finally came face to face with Yusei again when he rode his D-wheel out of the back of a Security Helicopter of all things, and then they ended up tag team duelling together for the first time in _years,_ Crow was more than happy to let Yusei choose their route through the streets. Crow knew that Yusei would no sooner let them get lost than he would loose that duel.

So when Yusei left Martha's house permanently to live in out in Satellite with his friends, she wasn't overly worried. She knew he would find his way back when he was ready, and not a moment sooner or later.

So when Aki duelled Yusei in the hospital and Yusei told her to her face that he didn't have the power to save people, Aki initially took it to mean that there was no way out of the madness for her. But reflecting on things afterwards, she realised how wrong she was. Yusei was telling the truth – he may not have the power to save, but he couldn't stand by watching, and that inevitably lead to him looking for that person. Yusei could always find someone, and lead them out of whatever mess they'd managed to get into, but they had to do the walking themselves.

So when Jack patched a call through to Yusei's D-Wheel to tell him that he knew where Rally was, Jack knew that it wasn't really necessary. He knew that he didn't need to tell Yusei where Rally was, because Yusei already knew, and that Yusei also knew that he was with Rally, and that when Yusei got there, Jack had better have a very good explanation ready. And when Jack drove off on a D-Wheel that wasn't his, he also knew that he was going to see Yusei again, because Yusei would come looking for him. And there was nowhere that Jack could go where Yusei wouldn't be able to find him.

* * *

So when Yusei left Satellite on the second D-Wheel, in the peace and quiet of the sewer tunnel, he wasn't thinking about the extremely likely possibility of running into Security, or about how large and unfamiliar Neo Domino city was, or even about the friends he was leaving behind.

He was thinking about Jack, and how he was going to find him, no matter where he was. And when he found him, Jack had better be ready. Else there was going to be hell to pay.


End file.
